PM Lee Hsien Loong at Tourism50 Gala Night and Singapore Experience Awards 2014

Mr Chew Choon Seng, Chairman of the Singapore Tourism Board

Mr Lionel Yeo, Chief Executive

Distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen

Very happy to join you this evening to celebrate 50 years of tourism development in Singapore and to honour the recipients of the Singapore Experience Awards.

OUR JOURNEY

Over the last half century, Singapore has transformed itself and our tourism landscape has also totally changed. In 1964, when we formed the Singapore Tourist Promotion Board (STPB) - that is what we called it then, we had only a handful of attractions – Haw Par Villa, Singapore Botanic Gardens and Mount Faber and we had 91,000 visitors in that year. Today, we have Sentosa, Gardens by the Bay, the River Safari, and many other very good attractions and I think 15 million visitors. And we host some spectacular events including the Formula One Grand Prix. We have grown from being a leisure destination to a great place for business travel and meetings as well. We have been voted Asia’s Top Convention City and International Meeting City for several years running by industry associations. So as Singaporeans, we have much to be proud of in our home, and we are very happy that so many tourists want to visit us and enjoy our little island. 

OUR PARTNERS

Tourism is an industry where the human touch makes all the difference - a welcoming smile at the stores, knowledgeable and friendly tourist guides who tell you just enough about the place and not too much, warm hospitality staff, people who leave lasting good impressions that keep visitors coming back for more and get them to tell their family and friends, you must visit Singapore. 

So as we celebrate our journey, let us celebrate the people who make it happen. Our bold pioneers like Dr Goh Keng Swee, whose foresight prevented Sentosa from becoming a petroleum refinery and who pushed for the Jurong Bird Park and other attractions. Mr Edmund Cheng, Chairman of STB for nine years, who steered the tourism industry through the 1998 Asian Economic crisis and developed Singapore as a venue for large-scale exhibitions and conferences. Edmund is here with us here this evening. Mr Robert Khoo, retired Group CEO of the National Association of Travel Agents Singapore (NATAS) and the man behind the hugely popular NATAS fairs. We must also celebrate the front-liners who interact with the customer like Ms Wendy Lee, who previously won the Singapore Experience Award, who has been a sales associate at DFS for more than 25 years and continues to fly our flag. Or Mr Chandramohan S/O Ramalingam, who works at the Jurong Bird Park, who was promoted this year, he used to train birds but now also trains people. Also this year’s recipients and nominees for all their dedications and contributions, and many others who work tirelessly in the front-lines and behind-the-scenes to make Singapore a special place.  

Thank you all!

OUR FUTURE

Over a 50 years journey, we have overcome many obstacles. As we look ahead the next 50 years, we can expect new challenges too. Because many other cities and destinations are competing with us – offering more customised experiences and building more iconic attractions like theme parks and in Singapore we have constraints like for example, we are increasingly short of labour. 

To keep Singapore special and to keep the tourists coming, we must grow our tourism industry by raising the quality of the experience and value of every tourist, not solely by increasing visitor numbers. I will suggest to you three ways we can do that - first by investing in capabilities, second by refreshing our visitor experience and third by deepening our local engagement.

First, we must invest in capabilities across various tourism industries so that Singaporeans can fill good jobs in the sector and see upward progression in their skills and income. For example, STB will be working with WDA and MOE in the hotel sector to enhance internship and place-and-train programmes so that ITE and polytechnic students can gain skills and experience and develop their careers. Our workers can develop their craft and be the best that they can be, and be proud of their jobs and their homes. 

That is also why STB has worked with the Society of Tourist Guides (Singapore) to bring in internationally accredited training programmes to enhance our guides’ skills and help them become better storytellers. This will help tourist guides like Mr Desmond Heng who already takes the initiative to dress up and role-play  during his tours to give visitors more interactive and engaging experiences. Both employers and staff have a part to play in this and STB will provide incentives to support both employers and workers and encourage industry partners and people to upgrade and work alongside STB.

Refresh visitor experience

First of all, we must invest in the tourism experience. Secondly, we must continually refresh the offerings we have. That is why we continue to break new ground in bringing in new and exciting events. For example last weekend, we became the first Asia-Pacific city to host the Women’s Tennis Association Finals – the year-end finale of Woman’s tennis. We will continue to bring in more events and shows to Singapore. 

We are also dramatically improving our attractions. Next year, the National Gallery will open and will host many shows. We have the River Safari which officially opened this year - it has been very well-received and has complemented the very popular Zoo and the Night Safari. We have bold plans to further develop Mandai. We will develop new attractions, including a new Bird Park to replace the existing one in Jurong. The Bird Park is going to be replaced, the birds will move from Park A to Park B. We will integrate the new Bird Park and the new attractions with the Zoo, the Night Safari, and the River Safari into a nature themed destination for recreation and education. We will create public spaces, linking up to surrounding green belts, including nature trails around the reservoir and the waterfront and create something special for Singaporeans and visitors. That is quite a big project. 

We will also encourage more small scale, ground-up innovations. For example, STB has supported a local pastry chef, Ms Janice Wong to start a food lab called 2am:Lab to experiment with new flavours and cooking techniques. This enabled her to create more Singapore inspired desserts for example the Coconut crispy and Pandan Gula Melaka ice cream for her own dessert bar. I think we are having it for dessert today. Apart from that, the 2am:Lab has inspired Janice to start a new line of sweets which will be launched next year.  

Deepen Local Engagement

Thirdly, we have to deepen our engagement with Singaporeans. Singapore is special – this is our country and our home. Ultimately, if we do not feel proud of our home, we cannot expect visitors to feel excited about Singa¬pore. That means we have to harness local energies and actively showcase our uniqueness and our local talent not only to visitors here but also to project this internationally too.

For example, we have KEEPERS: Singapore Designer Collective. It is a five-month project featuring local designers and artisans in a prominent location along Orchard Road - our prime shopping district. It has got good reviews. Some designers have been picked up by departmental stores here, expanding their retail presence. Then we have Singapore: Inside Out, an initiative under SG50. It is a multi-disciplinary showcase of local creative talent in the arts, food and beverage, fashion and design. And the showcase will travel, as it says inside out, it is going to Beijing next year, London and New York and returning for Singapore homecoming in November. These activities will instil local pride in our own home-grown creative talents and profile them internationally to show a different perspective of Singapore. 

CONCLUSION

Let me end with one example which summaries and illustrates what we are trying to do. Tonight, we are having our dinner here in the beautiful setting of the Flower Field Hall in Gardens by the Bay. When we first conceived of the Gardens, we had the idea but it was not an easy decision to build it. Because it is located on prime land, in the middle of the city – we could have used this for far more valuable commercial developments. But the URA planners argued and the Cabinet agreed that a large and beautiful park was important to our downtown and integral to our City in a Garden vision. So we took the plunge, we built it and it was the right decision. Now we have a place Singaporeans are proud of, identify with and can enjoy, and one more icon of Singapore. I am glad to see many families are enjoying the Gardens every day. I am also glad that when visitors talk about Singapore, Gardens by the Bay immediately comes to mind. But we are far from finished with Marina Bay or with the Gardens. We also have plans to expand the Gardens by the Bay on the Eastern side in the longer-term for Singaporeans and visitors to enjoy.

This is an example of how by investing in our capabilities, refreshing the visitor experience, and deepening local engagement, we will keep Singapore special. Because through celebrating the Singapore in us, visitors will come to appreciate and embrace Singapore as a special destination.   

I suspect this is one reason why Lonely Planet has named us as the top country to visit in the world in 2015. They cited new developments, attractions which elevated the experience and also the variety of experiences you can find in Singapore. They also cited our distinctly local software - food in our hawker centres, a local fashion scene, artisanal coffee and the celebration of our 50th birthday next year – SG50!

I thank you all for your support and I am confident that you will work with us and make Singapore a compelling destination for visitors and a better home for us to live, work and play. Thank you very much. 

* * * * *